Frowning, Madeline started back.
Gervase’s hand closed over her arm, staying her.
When she looked at him, he shook his head. “You don’t want to startle them.”
She looked back at the cliff edge, and bit her lip. He’d spoken softly; when he tugged, she let him draw her further back so her brothers, climbing the narrow, dangerous cliff path, wouldn’t see them until they’d stepped safely onto the clifftop.
First one bright head, then a second, and eventually a third-Harry, bringing up the rear-appeared. Madeline breathed a little sigh of relief; Gervase’s restraining hand fell away and she walked forward.
“Oh!” Edmond was the first to see her. Guilt-she was expert at detecting it-flashed across his face, but then he saw Gervase. Edmond brightened. “Hello.” He bobbed politely.
The greeting was echoed by Ben, who had all but jumped when he’d seen her. Harry, rather more controlled, nodded and said, “Good morning.”
Gervase acknowledged the three with an easy smile. “Hunting for something?” he asked, before she could demand.
The younger boys looked to Harry.
“Ah…birds’ nests,” he offered.
Gervase raised his brows. He believed that no more than Madeline. “A bit late in the season.”
“Well, yes,” Edmond said, “but we’ve only just got back from school so we thought it was worth checking.”
Three angelic faces smiled at him, looking from him to Madeline.
Gervase glanced at Madeline. Her expression was severe, but…although she knew she was being lied to, she was suppressing her reaction.
“It’s tea time,” Ben stated. “We were going in for scones.”
Lips compressing, Madeline nodded; stepping out of their way, she waved them on. “Off you go, then.”
They went, with telltale alacrity.
She watched, then sighed. “They’re up to something-I know it.”
Gervase fell in beside her as she started back more slowly along the path. “Of course they are-they’re boys.”
“Indeed.” She cast him a sharp glance. “You probably understand better than I do.”
His lips quirked. “Very likely.” After a moment, he added, “You didn’t call their bluff.”
They walked through the clearing; he thought she wasn’t going to respond, but then she said, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s never to force a confession or an accounting. They’ll either tell me the truth of their own accord…or whatever they tell me won’t be worth a damn.”
Truer words were never spoken. Gervase inclined his head. They trailed the boys back to the house; he had a strong suspicion about what they were up to, and it had nothing whatever to do with birds.
He’d spoken a little with Harry at the castle two nights before; the lad had reminded him of his cousin Christopher, he who had died of consumption unexpectedly, leaving Gervase as his uncle’s heir. Gervase had been a few years older, and like him Christopher had been a child of this coast. He’d been as adventurous as Gervase, yet underneath there’d been a quiet seriousness, as if he’d always known that at some point the responsibility of the earldom would fall on his shoulders.
Gervase had seen the same combination of traits in Harry, adventurousness running hand-in-hand with an acceptance of fate. He couldn’t see Harry leading his brothers into any truly dangerous enterprise.
Sometimes, however, danger wore a disguise.
They reached the house; he held the door open for Madeline, then followed her in. She led him into the front hall, then turned to give him her hand. “If you have any further questions about the festival, I’ll be happy to answer as best I can.”
Closing his fingers about her hand-not shaking it as she’d expected-he smiled. “I’ll bear that in mind.” Lowering his voice, he said, “I suspect your brothers are hunting for the smugglers’ caves.”
Her lips tightened. “I think so, too.”
“If you like…I still have excellent contacts with the local fraternity. I can mention the boys’ interest-they’re unlikely to come to any harm if the locals know they might stumble on them.”
The local smuggling gangs were one arena of male activity to which she would never, ever gain admittance; she would never know who was involved, let alone be invited to join, as every male in the locality, especially those of the major houses, usually were.
Her eyes narrowed as she searched his. “It must be some time since you sailed with any of them.”
“On a run? More than a decade.” He hesitated, then admitted, “But I had other, more recent reasons for keeping those contacts alive. I know all the leaders along this stretch of coast, and they will all talk, and listen, to me.”
He watched her put two and two together, and come up with a revealing answer. Over the years he’d been away “fighting Boney,” he’d reappeared now and then, when his father had died, and Christopher, and later his uncle, and then again to install Sybil and his sisters at the castle, and put his agents and stewards in charge of the estate.
Her eyes widened; her lips formed a soundless “Oh.” Refocusing on his face, she hesitated for an instant more, then nodded. “If it’s no trouble…I would like to know that they don’t need to fear anything from that direction.” Meeting his eyes, she grimaced. “While I would much rather they didn’t get involved in such exploits, I might as well try to hold back the waves.”
“Indeed.” He hadn’t released her fingers. Now he raised them; closing his other palm gently over her hand, he lifted the slender digits to his lips and pressed a light kiss to their backs.
Her eyes went wide; her breathing suspended.
A light blush rose to her cheeks.
He smiled, more intently. He lightly squeezed her fingers, then released them. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything definite about the boys.”
With a nod, he turned and walked out of the front door, entirely content.
Entirely aware that she stood rooted in the hall and stared after him until he disappeared from her sight.
Late that night, Madeline sat before her dressing table brushing out her long hair. The tresses gleamed copper and red in the candlelight, but with her gaze unfocused she didn’t see; as she usually did at this point in her night, she was mentally reviewing the events of her day.
Behind her, her maid Ada shook out her day dress, then headed for the armoire to hang it.
Madeline focused on the maid in the mirror as she returned. “Ada, please mention to the rest of the staff that should they hear anything about the boys associating with any of the smuggling gangs, they should pass the information to me-either through you or Milsom.”
A local, Ada had been with Madeline since before the boys were born. “Aye, well, they’re of that age, true enough. Master Harry and Master Edmond, at least, and no doubt but that Master Ben will inveigle those two into taking him with them.”
Madeline grimaced. “That’s one activity in which I wish Harry and Edmond weren’t quite so good over including Ben.”
“Ah, well, you can’t have everything.” On that stoic note, Ada swept up Madeline’s linen, along with her boots. “I’ll take these downstairs. Will you be wanting anything else tonight?”
“No, thank you. Good night.”
Ada murmured her customary “Sleep well,” and left.
Madeline remained seated before the mirror, drawing the brush slowly through her thick hair. Reliving the rest of her day.
Until she’d turned to farewell him in the front hall, she’d thought she’d managed Gervase and his visit rather well. True, there’d been that moment on the cliffs, but she didn’t think he’d planned that any more than she had. It had simply been, because they were who they were.
Nothing that special or surprising, really. The shared sense of connection had been predictable, had she considered it.
But then he’d understood about her brothers and had offered to help. In the right way-a way she could accept. He hadn’t lectured, nor made pompous suggestions of how to deal with them.